We are baby boomers privileged to enjoy our dream of early retirement while traveling full-time. We recently traded our 2005 37' Allegro Bay for a 2015 DRV Tradition fifth wheel being towed by a 2015 Silverado 3500HD Duramax dually. We are in our ninth year of being on the road. We invite you to join us as we explore this amazing country. and navigate the full-time RV lifestyle. Our heartfelt thanks to our soldiers and their families for their sacrifices to ensure our freedom so that we can pursue our dream.

August 19, 2014

David Warther Carvings

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, August 11, 2014

When we decided to spend most of the summer in Berlin, OH, we wanted mostly to relax, enjoy the rural atmosphere and occasionally indulge in the good food that's available in the area. We didn't plan on doing much sightseeing, but we did want to do some. Since last Monday was a rainy day, it was a good time to do something indoors so we headed to David Warther Carvings located a few miles to the east of Berlin between Walnut Creek and Sugarcreek.

David Warther is the grandson of Ernest "Mooney" Warther, who was a self-taught carver of locomotives and trains. We visited the Warther Museum in nearby Dover, OH back in 2012. Click here to read about that visit.

While his grandfather carved trains, David carves ships. The exhibit of David's carvings just opened a little over a year ago in a brand new building with 10,000 square feet of exhibit space.

David Warther Carvings

Admission to David Warther Carvings is $10 for adults. There are guided tours that tell about David's work and point out important features of selected ship models. After the tour, visitors are free to roam around on their own.

David Warther was only 14 when his grandfather died, but his interest in carving and in ships had already taken root. The exhibit has several of David's early ship models, including the first one he did at age 6. It is a Viking ship, and it's in center of the photo below.

David Warther's childhood ship models

Like his grandfather, David uses ivory as a major material for his carvings. When we think of ivory, we generally think of elephant tusks. However, ivory can be obtained from the teeth and tusks of many animals including walrus, whales and even wild boars. There was a display of ivory from various sources. The long one at the top of the next photo is the tusk from a narwhal, which is a medium-sized whale. The dark one in the center is a tusk from the extinct woolly mammoth. Even though the mammoth tusk is partially fossilized (some of the original tusk has been replaced by minerals), ivory can still be found toward the center. There were also several examples of ivory on the table that visitors could touch and lift. We were surprised at how heavy ivory is.

Examples of legal antique ivory

The importation of ivory has been banned in the United States and many foreign countries due to the dramatic decline of elephant populations in Africa and India. Therefore, all ivory used for the carvings is antique ivory, which is legal to sell and own. It is bought or is donated from museums and private collections.

Warther's carvings depict the history of the ship from about 3000 BC to the present. There are 4 or 5 exhibit rooms, each containing 15 to 20 models. The first room has mostly ancient Egyptian, Phoenician and Greek vessels.

Some of the models have magnifying lenses next to them to make it easier to see the intricate details. Warther uses scrimshaw to add additional features like windows, planking and decorative elements. Below is the model of King Tutankhamen's royal ship looking through the magnifying lens. Click on the photo if you want an even closer view. King Tut reigned from 1339 to 1327 BC. The scale of the model is 1/8 inch = 1 foot. The original ship was 88 feet long.

Detail of the model of King Tut's royal ship

Incidentally, the rigging on all the ships is ivory, not thread or wire. When David was only 13, he developed a method to make ivory strands for the rigging. Over the years, he has perfected the method so he is now able to make strands that are only seven thousandths of an inch (.007") in diameter. It takes him about 90 minutes to make one strand about 9 inches long.

The next room features Viking ships. The Vikings raided and explored from their Scandinavian homelands from about the 800s to the 1100s.

Margery listening to the tour guide tell us about Viking ships

From the Viking ships, we moved to the sailing ships of the 1400s to 1600s. Models included Columbus' ships - the Santa Clara (better known by its nickname the Niña), the Pinta and the Santa Maria. There is also a model of the Susan Constant, which brought settlers to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1606-1607 and the Mayflower, which brought settlers to Plymouth, Massechussetts, in 1620.

Model of the Susan Constant

Model of the Mayflower

The last room contains models from the 1800s and early 1900s. The entrance to the room is flanked by massive tusks from a 12-foot elephant.

Entrance to the last room flanked by two elephant tusks

Last summer, we saw a half-scale replica of the whaling ship Lagoda at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. David Warther's model of the Lagoda is built to a scale of 1/16 inch = 1 foot (1/192nd actual size).

Whaling ship Lagoda

We also learned about clipper ships at the Maine Maritime Museum last year. Clipper ships were built with a narrower hull and with a large sail area. They had a smaller cargo capacity, but were much faster than standard ships. They were built primarily for the China tea trade.

Warther has a carving of the British clipper ship Cutty Sark. The Cutty Sark was built in 1869. The restored ship is on display in London. You can see how much more slender the hull is than that of the Lagoda pictured above.

British clipper ship Cutty Sark

Also on display is David Warther's first major ship model, the U.S Coast Guard Cutter Eagle. By the way, David is now working on his 81st major ship model. Warther built the model of the Eagle from walnut and ivory when he was only 17 years old. The real ship was built in 1936 and is still in use today as a Coast Guard training ship.

David Warther's first major ship model, the Eagle

The last room of the exhibit building also contains a model of an F4U Corsair from WWII and early in the Korean War. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see it is covered by tiny white dots. Those white dots are ivory pins that are inserted into the surface individually to simulate rivets.

F4U Corsair with hundreds of ivory rivets

David's workshop is also off the last exhibit room. During the week, visitors can usually watch him work through a big picture window. Unfortunately, he took the day off when we were there. The shop is filled with hundreds of small tools, many of which David had to make himself because there was no existing tool small enough to do the job.

David Warther's workshop

With our tour of the carvings complete, we exited through the gift shop. There were items with a nautical theme and items with a country theme. There were also a few items of women's apparel and accessories like jewelry, scarves and purses. Margery was impressed with the variety and quality of all the items.

Margery in the gift shop

We (especially Paul) really liked David Warther Carvings. Paul used to build model kits when he was a kid, and he used to play around with model railroading. He also had a summer job when he was in college building custom models from scratch for plant layouts and for industrial exhibits, so he really appreciates what goes into building models like these.

The rain was predicted to continue for the next couple of days, so we headed back to the motor home to take it easy and wait it out. Look for our next post to see what else we find to do.

July 08, 2013

July 4th Weekend Part I: Flea Market, Alpine Hills Museum and More

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, July 4 to Friday, July 5, 2013

Berlin is only about two hours from where Lora and J. Michael live. They like to camp at Scenic Hills several times a year, and they planned to spend the long 4th of July weekend with us. They arrived shortly after noon on the 4th. We went over to their site for some quick hugs, then gave them space to finish setting up. When they were done, they came over to the motor home for lunch.

Lora follows Der Dutchman on Facebook, so she knew the bakery was featuring fresh peach pies all month. After lunch, we zipped to Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek to pick up a small peach pie for dessert that evening.

We all relaxed later in the afternoon, then we got together for dinner. We had grilled smoked sausage we picked up at Winesburg Meats when we were out a few days prior.

J. Michael's birthday is coming up, so after dinner we wanted have a little celebration since we won't be together on his actual birthday. One of the things we gave him was several bags of Herr's Jalapeno Poppers Cheese Curls. We discovered them at Sam's Club when we were in Florida. We love them, and we thought J. Michael might enjoy them, too. Unfortunately, we can't find them at Sam's anymore, or anyplace else for that matter, so we ordered some for J. Michael and for ourselves directly from Herr's.

J. Michael with his Jalapeno Popper Cheese Curls

We gave J. Michael and Lora samples of the cheese curls from our already-opened bag, and they both loved them, too. In the next photo, Lora is pretending to try to steal the cheese curls while J. Michael puts on a scowl and protects his stash.

You can't have my cheese curls!

After dinner, we played a game of Rummikub (a game with plastic tiles where you try to make matches by numbers or color); and later, we enjoyed our pie. It was one of the best peach pies we had ever had.

It was drizzling rain on Friday morning as we all headed to Der Dutchman for the breakfast buffet.

Margery, Lora and J. Michael at the Der Dutchman breakfast buffet

After breakfast, we stopped at the Walnut Creek Amish Flea Market a few miles down the road from Der Dutchman. Since the market is indoors, the rain didn't seem to deter the crowds much.

Main entrance to the Walnut Creek Amish Flea Market

After we did the flea market, it was still drizzling off and on, so we made our way a few miles east to Sugarcreek, OH to the Alpine Hills Museum. Lora learned about the free museum from the family of one of her students, and we thought it would make an excellent activity for a rainy day. The museum traces the history of the village of Sugarcreek and celebrates the town's Swiss roots. Margery's mom was Swiss, so Margery and Lora were very much interested in the museum because of their Swiss heritage.

Alpine Hills Museum

In the 1800s, Swiss immigrants settled in this area of Ohio. Amish and Mennonites were among those settlers.

In 1882, the railroad came to the valley and built a depot just to the east of the then-thriving town of Shanesville. The village of East Shanesville sprang up around the depot. In 1888, a post office was opened, and the name of East Shanesville was officially changed to Sugarcreek after the name of a local stream. Shanesville eventually became part of Sugarcreek.

Sugarcreek is known as the Little Switzerland of Ohio. They have an annual Swiss Festival that attracts large crowds from all over. As you can see in the photo above, the museum and many of the other buildings in town are decorated to look like Swiss chalets.

The museum display starts out with an 1890s kitchen. Although the museum calls this an Amish kitchen because of the wood stove and ice box, it is probably not very much different from most rural kitchens of the 1890s.

1890s kitchen

Many of the Swiss immigrants were dairy farmers. Cheese making, for which the Swiss are so well known, also came to America with the early settlers. The museum has a display of cheese making the way it was done back in the 1890s when the village of Sugarcreek was newly founded. Milk was heated over a wood fire in large, copper kettles.

The method of making cheese in the 1890s was a lot different from what we saw at Heini's Cheese a few days prior. Back in the day, the wood fire had to be carefully tended to maintain the proper temperature for many hours during which time the milk mixture would have to be constantly stirred by hand. At Heini's, we saw large, steam-heated vats with automatic stirrers.

Woodworking was, and still is, an important industry in the area. The museum had a nice display of woodworking tools from the 1800s.

Woodworking tools from the 1800s

On the second floor of the museum, there were exhibits of some of the furniture, musical instruments and clothing that once belonged to the early settlers of Sugarcreek.

Display of furniture and clothing from the late 1800s

Traditional Swiss costumes

In the music room, there were several Alp horns. Alp horns were used for signaling in mountain villages since medieval times. Alp horns are typically up to 8' long and are constructed from a solid piece of wood. After the outside is shaped, the horn is split down the middle so the inside can be hollowed out, after which the two halves are re-assembled.

Alp horns in the instrument room

There were also displays of more recent items from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s including several old Edison record players, Victrolas and radios. As we looked at the display of radios, Lora asked, "What are those glass bulbs? I know they have something to do with radios, but what are they?" We had to explain they were what was used prior to transistors to convert radio waves to sound and to amplify the sound. It makes one feel old to realize that your child has never seen a vacuum tube. Paul remembers many a trip to the store with his dad when he was little to check the tubes when their old TV went on the fritz.

Lora had never seen a vacuum tube

In the basement were numerous old wagons, buggies and firefighting equipment from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The fire fighting equipment was restored for the museum by the local volunteer fire company.

Early fire fighting equipment

We thought the museum was very well done. We enjoyed our visit a lot.

Diagonally across the intersection from the museum is a large Swiss-style clock. On the hour and half hour, recorded music plays and a miniature, mechanical oompa band comes out the door to play their instruments while Swiss dancers (to the left in the photo below) whirl and twirl to the music.

Mechanical oompa band plays music on the hour and the half hour

It was spitting rain as we watched the oompa band play, so Lora donned a "do rag" made from a plastic bag she happened to have to protect her hair. What women don't do in the name of style.

Lora used a plastic bag to protect her hair from rain

After we left the museum we took back roads to to Charm so J. Michael could stop at Keim lumber to pick up a couple of plumbing items for their trailer. We also stopped at Hershberger's Farm Market so Lora could get some zucchini for dinner.

We then headed back to the motor home for relaxation (naps) and reading for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we got together again for dinner. Lora made delicious marinated, grilled chicken and zucchini pancakes.

June 01, 2008

It's been over 6 weeks since our last post because we haven't been doing much sightseeing since our first stop in Ohio's Amish country. After our last post, we returned to the Pittsburgh area for our originally-planned late-April visit. We had planned to stay 2 weeks, but we had to extend our stay a week because Paul needed some additional dental work. :( The good news is we got to spend more time with family. During this time, we traveled north of the city (for doctor appointments, visits, and for church) and back south to where Lora and J. Michael live 11 of the 21 days we were in Pittsburgh. Since the kids moved south of Pittsburgh, we rack up the mileage on the car for visiting our parents, friends, and keeping doctor appointments; but it's wonderful to be able to park the motor home on the gravel pad next to their garage, which is something we couldn't do where they used to live in the North Hills. The ability to leisurely visit back and forth is great. Actually, this campsite is super! The hosts are wonderful, the laundry room immaculate, the meals superb, and we even had a campfire with timely updates on the Penguins' playoff game with Philadelphia! During our stay, Paul worked on several projects around Lora and J. Michael's new home, we met former co-workers for lunch, and we shared a lot of meals with the kids as Margery and Lora traded off being sous chefs for each other. Lora and Margery shopped and and enjoyed doing "activities of daily living" together. Something that has become somewhat of a tradition is their "girl thing" they call "Tea and Toes." They start with a pedicure at Salon Vivace in Treesdale. Although their cost is a little higher than others, it is justified by the fact that the French pedicures can last up to three months. Here are Lora and Margery being pampered at the salon. Following the pedicure, Lora and Margery went to The Johnston House in Cranberry Township. This is Margery and Lora's favorite tea room for its delectable sweet and savory offerings, the gracious service, and the beautiful house and gardens. Paul finished upgrading the parking pad beside the kids' house. They had a nice gravel spot there where they park their trailer; but with having to park the motor home a few feet farther away from the house to allow room to walk and to open the entry and storage bay doors, the pad was a little too narrow and we left some pretty deep ruts in their lawn when we visited last August. A few days before the end of our last stay in Berlin, we asked the kids to have a couple of tons of gravel delivered and we drove the 100 miles from Berlin to Pittsburgh in our car to level the gravel and widen the pad a few feet. After we arrived a few days later in our motor home, Paul lined the newly-widened pad with landscape timbers and filled in around the edges with some leftover gravel. There were lots of additional projects as well. Paul did some repair work on the kids' trailer, installed a couple of new outside light fixtures, installed a new toilet in the master bath, cut some new wooden leveling boards for their trailer, helped J. Michael and his brother install a new roll-out awning over their deck, fixed the hanger for the hummingbird feeder, and more. One of the things Paul misses about full-timing is the ability to work on various projects around the house. He enjoys the satisfaction of seeing things working properly and of seeing the improvements completed. There are always a few projects around the motor home, but it's not quite the same. We left Pittsburgh and headed back to Berlin for a few days. Of course, we stopped (again) at Der Dutchman for the salad bar for dinner and for the breakfast buffet we love so much. We also made stops at Sugar Valley Meats for smoked beef jerky and ham loaf mix, at Winesburg Meats for beef snack sticks, and at Lehman's Hardware. Our second stay in Berlin was originally scheduled for 9 days, but it was shortened to 2 because of our extended stay in Pittsburgh for Paul's dental work. From Berlin, it was on to Caesar Creek State Park, a Passport America campground near Waynesville, OH for two weeks. Although it is very crowded on weekends and a little zooey on holiday weekends because it is so close to both Cincinnati and Dayton, it is still one of our favorite campgrounds. Being close to two large cities, it is primarily a weekend campground and it it is usually pretty quiet during the week. When we arrived Sunday afternoon, there were only two or three other RVs (other than the camp host) on our loop. The photo below shows the campground on Monday morning after we arrived... ...and the next one is the same view on Memorial Day weekend. The photo was taken fairly early in the morning before too many cars, bicycles, kids playing, and walkers were on the road. We have camped at Caesar Creek on Memorial Day and Labor Day for six years, and it is a good place to meet Lora and J. Michael now that we are full-timers, which is what we did this year. Lora and J. Michael arrived mid-afternoon on Friday and got set up. By early evening, the campground was essentially completely full. We hear on the news about people canceling trips because of the high gas prices, but since Caesar Creek is close to two major cities and since holiday weekend reservations need to be made far in advance to get in, most people showed up as planned. On Saturday morning, we headed to Der Dutchman Restaurant (sister of the one in Berlin) in nearby Waynesville for the breakfast buffet, then went to Traders World Flea Market a few miles southwest of Ceasar Creek. Traders World is a mostly indoor flea market; but on this beautiful, sunny day, there was a really good crop of outdoor sellers including a number of vendors some very nice hanging baskets, perennials, and flats of annuals. Lora and J. Michael bought a pair of beautiful hanging baskets of petunias for only $10 each. This was the first chance for Margery to do major walking (not fast-paced, but sustained walking AND standing) since her knee surgery. She did very well and only sat down a couple of times during the 2 hours we were there. Her knees held out so well that her feet started to hurt from all the walking. She probably should have worn tennis shoes instead of sandals. On Sunday, we went to the nearby Caesar Creek Flea Market. Of the several markets in the area, this is one of our favorites since they usually have a nice balance of new merchandise with the indoor vendors and used merchandise with outside vendors. This time, however, there were not many outside vendors in spite of the fact it was a magnificent day with bright sun and temperatures in the low 70s. Nevertheless, there was a good crowd of potential buyers drawn by the hunt for bargains. Although we always attend this flea market after a big breakfast and usually don't partake of their food (or "fair fare" as we call it), there is an excellent selection of "fair fare" with smells that are very tempting. The view below is looking toward the food vendors and the entertainment stage with a pretty decent bluegrass band. Again, Margery's knees did very well, especially since this was the second day in a row we did quite a bit of walking. We even rode our bikes in the evenings after the flea markets. We started staying over after holiday weekends at Caesar Creek until at least Tuesday even before we went full-time, so we could avoid the long lines at the dump station and so we could enjoy having the campground pretty much to ourselves again. Ever since Lora and J. Michael got caught waiting over an hour to dump several years ago (Caesar Creek has since built a second dump station to better handle the weekend crowds), they started doing the same. By Monday afternoon, there were only a few RVs left on our loop and we enjoyed the peace and quiet. Lora and J. Michael left on Tuesday and were the only ones at the dump station. As many times as we've been in this area, we never have visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which is located at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. The museum was originally started as the Technical Data Section of the Engineering Division in 1923 at McCook Field. The museum was moved to Wright Field in 1927 and opened to the public in 1932. Construction of the first of the current museum buildings, which are designed to look like huge hangars, was started in 1970. The museum now includes 3 main buildings and an IMAX theater. The museum houses several hundred meticulously restored aircraft ranging from the first plane sold by the Wright Brothers to the U. S. Army Signal Corps in 1909... ...to the most recent, high-tech aircraft such as the B-2 Stealth Bomber... ...and the F-22 Stealth Fighter. The collection also includes numerous presidential planes (Air Force One) and many experimental aircraft. These are located in another area on the Air Force base and require a short ride on a shuttle bus. Unfortunately, we did all of our self-guided walking tour of the museum before we went to inquire about the shuttle, and it was already booked up until later in the afternoon so we decided to save that part of the tour for another visit. If you want to take the shuttle to see the presidential and experimental aircraft, sign up as soon as you arrive and fit the rest of the tour around your scheduled shuttle ride over to the base. There is also a guided tour of the museum available every day at 1:30 and a behind-the-scenes tour of the restoration area available on Fridays with advance sign-up. The aircraft are arranged in chronological order so you can view them in historical context. It's interesting to see how aircraft design has evolved over the years. You don't necessarily have to be an aircraft enthusiast to enjoy the Air force Museum. There are numerous displays of artifacts and photos giving the historical background of the various time periods represented by the aircraft from early flight, WWI, WWII, Korea, the Cold War, Viet Nam and Southeast Asia, all the way up to the present time. Many of the displays include not only artifacts and photos, but also a 3 to 5 minute video. Best of all, the museum is free, except for a flight simulator ride ($3.50) and the IMAX Theater ($6.00 - with discounts for seniors, students, and tours). The photo below Margery watching a video on dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. The plane is the B-29 bomber, Bockscar, that dropped the atomic bomb called Fat Man on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. A similar plane, the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima three days prior. Japan surrendered six days after the second atomic bomb was dropped. The display includes replicas of the bombs - Fat Man is the yellow one near the fuselage and Little Boy is the one to the left by the wing. Back at the campground, a few additional people came in on Thursday and a few more on Friday, but it was relatively quiet after the crowds on Memorial Day. On Monday, we will be leaving and heading west to the Escapees rally in Gillette, WY over the 4th of July and then on to Yellowstone.